Best Climbs Tahquitz and Suicide Rocks (Best Climbs Series)

This book is surprisingly inexpensive, considering that it's in color. The overview maps showing the approach routes are very nice.However, I feel kind of stupid owning it, because it includes almost nothing in the range of difficulty that I can hope to do. Easy climbs are included only if they qualify as "best," but there are so few of those that you end up with almost no easy climbs. Adding to the difficulty of getting any practical use out of the book is the fact that, unlike the guidebook that Gaines coauthored with Vogel, this one has no index of climbs by difficulty rating. Sure, it's cool to look at a beautiful photo of Darrell Hensel getting up a Someone You're Not 5.13, but considering that the route has only ever been climbed a couple of times, it's not like any significant number of people paying for this book are getting any utility out of having the route described for them.

Having used the previous guide and climbed extensively at Tahquitz I was really excited to give this as a gift. Now when I visit southern California to climb at Tahquitz, I like to use my friend's book. The topos are improved, and the descriptions are much also improved. For instance the color pictures of the "the step" give a much better feel to where the climb is than in the old Vogel/Gaines guide.For someone visiting the Tahquitz or Suicide for the first time, this guidebook will make it easier to navigate the cliff much easier.

This book is well-written and beautiful. It has good descriptions and topos. Unfortunately it emphasizes hard climbs (5.10 and 5.11) at the expense of easier climbs (5.4 to 5.9). If you climb hard, this is the book for you.

I bough this book used. It came in perfect condition. also, the book is great. all the rout info I need.

good